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| Egypt's Brotherhood cries foul over prison deaths Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:44 PM PDT  By Crispian Balmer and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, fighting for its political survival, has accused security forces of killing dozens of detained Islamists, upping the pressure in a crisis that has rocked the Arab world's most populous state. At least 850 people have died since last Wednesday in clashes pitting followers of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against the army-backed government in the worst bloodletting in Egypt's modern history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Firefighters step up battle against Idaho blaze; resort towns menaced Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 08:05 PM PDT  By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Firefighters mounted on Sunday an all-out ground and air attack on an Idaho wildfire that has forced the evacuation of some 2,250 homes and threatened the world-class ski resort of Sun Valley, where snow-making water cannons were used to keep the flames at bay. The fire raging across parched sagebrush, grasslands and pine forests near high-end developments in the Sun Valley area has consumed 101,000 acres and destroyed one home and seven other buildings since lightning sparked the blaze on August 7. ... Full Story | Top |
| New ban on New Zealand dairy products bound for China Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 07:45 PM PDT  By Naomi Tajitsu WELLINGTON (Reuters) - More New Zealand milk products bound for China have been halted after elevated levels of nitrates were found, raising further concerns over quality and testing in the world's largest dairy exporter in the wake of a contamination scare earlier this month. New Zealand's agricultural regulator said on Monday it has revoked export certificates for four China-bound consignments of lactoferrin manufactured by Westland Milk Products after higher- than-acceptable nitrate levels were found by tests in China. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: North Korea's Kim tries new tack with defectors - being nice Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 05:04 PM PDT  (Contains profanity in third paragraph) By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a new approach to defectors who have fled his impoverished and repressive state, promising they will not be harmed if they come home, and even offering cash rewards, according to some in the exile community. ... Full Story | Top |
| Embattled San Diego mayor's foes begin circulating recall petitions Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 05:09 PM PDT  By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A campaign seeking to recall San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who has resisted mounting pressure to resign over sexual harassment allegations, shifted into high hear on Sunday as organizers began collecting signatures for a petition demanding his ouster. Recall proponents will need to amass at least 102,000 valid signatures within 39 days, by September 26, in order to qualify a recall vote for the ballot, a deadline that some experts have said would be difficult to meet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to meet with financial regulators on Wall Street reform law Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 06:54 PM PDT  By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will sit down with the leading U.S. financial market regulators on Monday to discuss their progress in implementing the 2010 Wall Street reform law, the White House said on Sunday. The Dodd-Frank law was passed by the then-Democratic-controlled Congress with Obama's support as a response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. It aims to prevent large, complex financial firms from imperiling markets should they collapse. ... Full Story | Top |
| Okinawa shows vulnerability of Japan PM's popular appeal Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:08 PM PDT  By Nathan Layne NAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Masatoshi Onaga says Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is out of touch with Okinawa, one of Japan's poorest prefectures and the reluctant host to half the U.S. forces in the country. To understand the island's pain, Onaga would like to see Tokyo-based leaders try living in the shadows of the Futenma air base, a facility targeted for closure since 1996 because of its location in a densely populated area, with warplanes taking off and landing over surrounding houses, hospitals and schools. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain detains partner of journalist linked to Snowden Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 06:04 PM PDT By William James LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities used anti-terrorism powers on Sunday to detain the partner of a journalist with close links to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor who has been granted asylum by Russia, as he passed through London's Heathrow airport. The 28-year-old David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald who writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, was questioned for nine hours before being released without charge, a report on the Guardian website said. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU weighs aid, commercial links with Egypt Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:58 PM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments will this week question how to best use their economic ties with Egypt to pressure Cairo's army-backed rulers into finding a peaceful compromise with supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. At stake could be a 5 billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised by the EU, its member governments and international financial institutions last year, as well as various trade incentives, EU officials and experts say. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Some U.S. feedlots rue loss of 'Vitamin Z' Zilmax Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 12:24 PM PDT  By Lisa Baertlein and P.J. Huffstutter (Reuters) - After nearly a decade of relying on weight-gain feed additives as a lifeline to survival, some of the 75,000 U.S. cattle feedyards that dot rural America in places such as Texas and the Great Plains, suddenly must do without the leading product Zilmax - nicknamed "Vitamin Z." Merck & Co's announcement on Friday that it was suspending the sale of Zilmax in the United States and Canada surprised many cattle owners and feedlot operators, who say Zilmax and other beta-agonists have been a godsend for a struggling U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guantanamo prosecutors want 2014 trial for 9/11 case Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:43 AM PDT By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal are pushing the judge to set a September 2014 trial date in the 9/11 case, a decision that could hinge on how deeply the defense is allowed to delve into the defendants' treatment in secret CIA prisons. A U.S. military judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, will hear arguments on the issue in a weeklong pretrial hearing that begins on Monday at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. ... Full Story | Top |
| In turnaround, ruling Tunisia Islamists will meet rivals Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:27 PM PDT By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's governing Islamist party Ennahda switched course on Sunday and agreed to meet with opposition parties to seek a consensus on resolving the country's worst political crisis since its 2011 Arab Spring revolution. Fethi Ayadi, chairman of the party's supreme council, told journalists the talks could start by the end of the week and could consider opposition demands for a caretaker technocrat government to find a way out of the current standoff. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fed minutes, euro zone surveys to point the way Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 11:04 AM PDT  By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - A blend of past and present holds the key this week to gauging global economic prospects. Month-old minutes from the Federal Reserve could offer hints on when the U.S. central bank will scale back its extraordinary stimulus and up-to-date sentiment indicators will help track momentum in the reviving euro zone. The single currency area ended an 18-month recession last quarter, growing 0.3 percent, and August business surveys are likely to show the modest recovery is slowly broadening out. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK detains partner of journalist linked to Snowden Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:26 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities used anti-terrorism powers to detain the partner of a journalist with close links to Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor, as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on Sunday. The 28-year-old David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald who writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, was questioned for nine hours, before being released without charge, a report on the Guardian website said. Rio de Janeiro-based Greenwald has interviewed Snowden, wanted by U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia warns against pressing Egypt on crackdown Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:19 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Sunday warned the West against putting pressure on Egypt's military-backed government to halt a crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. "We will not achieve anything through threats," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, told reporters through an interpreter during a visit to Paris. The prince spoke after meeting French President Francois Hollande, who on Thursday called for a swift end to a state of emergency imposed by Egypt's military authorities. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: North Korea's Kim tries new tack with defectors - being nice Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:52 PM PDT  (Contains profanity in third paragraph) By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a new approach to defectors who have fled his impoverished and repressive state, promising they will not be harmed if they come home, and even offering cash rewards, according to some in the exile community. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Egypt seen as graveyard of Islamist ambitions for power Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 09:32 AM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT (Reuters) - As the army ruthlessly crushes the Muslim Brotherhood on the streets of Cairo, having swept away its elected president, Egypt is being painted as the graveyard of the Arab Spring and of Islamist hopes of shaping the region's future. This week's bloody drama has sent shockwaves out of Egypt, the political weathervane and cultural heart of the Arab world. ... Full Story | Top |
| Southern African leaders back re-election of Zimbabwe's Mugabe Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:48 AM PDT  By Mabvuto Banda LILONGWE (Reuters) - Southern African leaders on Sunday endorsed the re-election of veteran President Robert Mugabe, brushing aside a campaign from Zimbabwe's opposition MDC who said the vote July was rigged and its results should be overturned. The decision by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which helped broker a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in 2008, clears the way for Mugabe, 89, to be sworn as early as this week for a fresh five-year term. ... Full Story | Top |
| After deadly ferry disaster, Philippines asks what went wrong Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 05:54 AM PDT  By Rolando Ng TALISAY, Philippines (Reuters) - As rescuers plucked more bodies from the sea after a Philippine ferry and a cargo ship collided late last week, killing at least 38 people, a vexing but familiar question faces a country plagued by an abysmal record in maritime safety: what went wrong? Authorities say 82 people listed as missing are believed to have died, trapped in the ferry that sank to the sea floor off the central Philippine port of Cebu minutes after Friday's collision. Divers are trying to cut into the vessel, at a depth of 45 meters (150 feet), and plug an oil leak. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chemical weapons inspectors to start work in Syria on Monday Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:50 PM PDT  DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A team of U.N. chemical weapons experts have arrived in Damascus and will start work on Monday to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war. President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels fighting him have accused each other of using chemical weapons, a step which the United States had said would cross a "red line" in a conflict which has killed 100,000 people. Like the broader Syrian conflict, the issue of chemical weapons has divided world powers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain fishermen protest artificial reef in Gibraltar Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 04:44 AM PDT  GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - Spanish fishermen protested against the creation of an artificial reef in the bay of Gibraltar on Sunday and claimed the territory's authorities were blocking their access to the waters in the latest focus of tensions between Spain and Britain. For just over an hour some 30 fishing boats circled where 70 3-tonne concrete blocks were dropped in July to form a reef that Spain said was not legal and prompted the government to ramp up border checks with the British overseas territory. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's fallen former high-flyer Bo to stand trial Thursday Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:41 AM PDT  By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China's most divisive and dramatic case in decades. The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64, a "princeling" son of a late vice premier who is still popular with conservatives and the disaffected, will be the country's highest-profile hearing since the 1976 downfall of Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Booming Gibraltar fears new era of sour relations with Spain Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 05:52 AM PDT  By Fiona Ortiz GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - The people of tiny Gibraltar - a wealthy British enclave perched on a rocky outcrop near Spain's southern tip - have a tradition of griping about their big neighbor, which claims the territory as its own. But the tetchy relationship has taken a sharp nosedive as an escalating spat over fishing has interrupted a decade of relative calm, igniting concerns that Gibraltar's tourism and port industries could be hurt. ... Full Story | Top |
| Flamboyant Chinese princeling faces final indignity Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:39 AM PDT  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The writing was perhaps already on the wall for Bo Xilai, the controversial former top official of China's southwestern city of Chongqing, when he appeared at last year's parliamentary meeting, alternately chastened and combative. In earlier annual sessions of parliament, Bo had swept in, all smiles and lanky grace, preceded by a wave of TV cameras and popping flashbulbs. This time he was uncharacteristically restrained. ... Full Story | Top |
| American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:00 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Sunday. Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open on Sunday after being closed for 12 days. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Firefighters step up battle in Idaho blaze menacing resort towns Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 12:07 PM PDT  By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Firefighters readied for a massive ground and air attack on Sunday against a wildfire in central Idaho that has forced the evacuation of some 2,250 homes and threatens the posh Sun Valley ski resort. The fire raging across parched sagebrush, grasslands and pine forests near high-end developments in Sun Valley has consumed 101,000 acres and destroyed one home and seven other buildings since a lightning strike sparked the blaze on August 7. ... Full Story | Top |
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